1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1.1 Field of the Invention
1.2 Description of the Prior Art
2.0 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
3.0 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
4.0 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
4.1 Overview of the Invention
4.2 First Embodiment (Wireline Devices)
4.3 Second Embodiment (Wireless Devices)
4.4 Subscriber Registration
4.5 Alert Signal Origination
4.5.1 Automatic Location Identification (ALI) Database System Query
4.5.2 Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) Trigger
4.5.3 Wireless Network
4.5.3.1 PSTN 911
4.5.3.2 Cell Tower/Sector Routing
4.5.3.3 Handset-location based routing
4.5.3.3.1 Call-Path Associated Signaling (CAS)
4.5.3.3.2 Non Call-Path Associated Signaling (NCAS)
4.5.3.3.3 Hybrid Systems
4.5.3.3.4 Third-party Location
4.5.4 IP Telephony
4.6 Real-time Data Acquisition
4.6.1 Voice Recording Transmission
4.6.2 Computer-Assisted Dispatch (CAD) Information Transmission
4.6.3 Automatic Crash Notification (ACN) Database
4.7 Notification
4.7.1 Notification Menu Flow
4.7.2 Attach Associated Information
4.7.3 Notification Mode
5.0 SUMMARY
CLAIMS
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
1.1 Field of the Invention
This invention relates to telecommunication networks and more particularly, to a method of third-party notification which responds whenever a call to an emergency service has occurred by placing real-time incident and response information content into an outbound notification call to a list of predetermined telephone numbers.
1.2 Description of the Prior Art
Nationwide, a non-toll telephone number 9-1-1 has been designated for calls relating to emergencies that threaten human life or property. Similar telephone numbers have been designated in many foreign countries. The calls are directed by the telephone company""s End Office/Central Office (CO) and 9-1-1 Tandem to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) where the calling number Automatic Number Identification (ANI) is displayed on a viewing screen. Most areas now have xe2x80x9cEnhanced 9-1-1xe2x80x9d which allows selective routing and through which both the calling number and address of the caller are displayed on a viewing screen at the PSAP, thus enabling the emergency agency to locate the caller if the call is interrupted. The address of the caller is obtained from the telephone company""s customer records Automatic Location Identification (ALI) database system. Currently mobile communications systems, such as cell phones, low earth orbit (LEO) satellite phones, wireless IP devices, etc. do not provide a way for a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) to determine the actual physical location or address (the street address or coordinates) where the device is located. This has been identified as a major obstacle in providing the enhanced 9-1-1 features for wireless cell phones, one of the key elements of which is locating the caller.
Personnel at the PSAP talk to the caller and route the call to the appropriate agency equipped to handle the emergency, such as ambulance; fire and rescue; police, sheriff and highway patrol; or Coast Guard, Search and Rescue. Third parties, other than the agency responding to the emergency, may also be notified that a 9-1-1 call has been placed. Prior approaches to call notification and/or routing are represented by the following prior art patents:
Carrier, et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,126, granted Mar. 16, 1993, for xe2x80x9cEmergency Alert and Security Apparatus and Methodxe2x80x9d discloses a wireline telecommunications system which includes a 9-1-1 and voice message service platform for providing such services as telephone answering, voice mail and call completion. An emergency/safety notification system includes a monitor/router device passively connected to the 9-1-1 Tandem to detect number identification signals. In the event of a 9-1-1 telephone call, the service initiates a voice mail call, which plays a custom message from the calling party to designated third parties. The Carrier patent does not provide for the automatic insertion of the calling party""s ANI, the date or the time of the 9-1-1 call, or the name or location or address of the telephone customer. The service is driven from a passive monitor/router at every 9-1-1 Tandem or End/Central Office. The service provides only voice mail in the event of a 9-1-1 call. If no voice mail message is provided by the subscriber, no message is played in the event of a 9-1-1 call.
Pons, et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,670, granted Sep. 8, 1998, for xe2x80x9cPrivate Notification System for Communicating 9-1-1 Informationxe2x80x9d discloses an advanced personal safety service that is connected directly to 9-1-1 call centers. To activate the service, subscribers complete a questionnaire providing personal information about their location and household and pay a monthly fee. When a subscriber dials 9-1-1 for help and the call is answered at the PSAP, Automatic Number Identification/Automatic Location Identification (ANI/ALI) data is sent from the E-9-1-1 Controller to a Command Control Center. If the Command Control Center determines the ANI is one of a subscriber, it sends personal information to the PSAP CAD, and the CAD may send information about the incident to the Command Control Center. Police, fire and emergency medical services are provided with personal information about subscribers, such as medical history and preexisting conditions, as well as the location of children, elderly or infirm persons within a dwelling. The Command Control Center personnel may place calls to a preselected list of telephone numbers. The information given to the pre-selected recipients may include response or destination information from the CAD. Thus, the service provides emergency services with personal information about subscribers and alerts pre-selected contacts about the incident.
Reich, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,151,385 assigned to the assignee of the present invention describes a computer driven telecommunication system that automatically reacts to all emergency 9-1-1 calls that result in a query to the local telephone company""s Automatic Location Identification (ALI) database system. This query may come from a tandem selective router, a 9-1-1 controller, a service control point, or other source of an Automatic Number Identification (ANT). Reaction is based on the Automatic Number Identification (ANI) as provided to the system by the local telephone company through a connection from the ALI database system. Reaction to the input includes evaluation of all ANIs to determine if the ANT is for a customer that has subscribed to the system and, pending positive evaluation, reacting through existing telephone networks by notifying addressable communication devices that a 9-1-1 call has been placed from the subscriber""s telephone.
Orwick, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,856, granted Mar. 13, 2001, for xe2x80x9cEmergency telephone call notification service system and methodxe2x80x9d describes a method for emergency telephone call notification for use in a wireline network. The system includes an advanced intelligent network (AIN) capable switch, a service control point (SCP) having a database of designated contact numbers associated with a service subscriber telephone number, and an intelligent peripheral in communication with the SCP for contacting the designated contact numbers. The method recognizes an N11 trigger at the switch in communication with the subscriber telephone (e.g. a dialed 911 call) in response to which the SCP initiates telephone calls, via the intelligent peripheral, to each of the contact numbers corresponding to the telephone number of the subscriber making the emergency telephone call.
The intelligent peripheral supplies a caller ID message to the designated telephone number and plays a prerecorded message if a person answers the emergency call notification call. The system employs a caller ID generator comprising a pre-designated message stored in memory. The intelligent peripheral further comprises a plurality of prerecorded message templates, for example, a prerecorded message for transmission to an answering machine. Each of the templates may have a general voice or text message for transmission to the contact telephones. If a response (touch tone or voice) is received from a person answering at the contact number dialed by the intelligent peripheral, the intelligent peripheral may play an announcement indicating that the emergency call was placed from the subscriber telephone at a particular time/day, and will automatically attempt to connect the person answering the notification call to the subscriber telephone.
The service is provided entirely within the telephone company""s networkxe2x80x94information is not sent to an independent third party notification service.
Pickett, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,278, granted Jun. 2, 1998 for xe2x80x9cIntegrated data collection and transmission for 9-1-1 calls for servicexe2x80x9d discloses a method to provide, in a wireline telephone system,: 1) the ability to capture and utilize decoded caller data; 2) automatically interrogate one or more computer databases using caller data (telephone number) as a search key: 3) integrate and format the caller information as it is returned by the database search. Such information could include the address of the caller, the geopolitical jurisdiction information (e.g., the police, fire, or ambulance service responsible for a particular geographic area), and the ability to integrate this information plus any additional information provided by the call taker; 4) automatically transmit the integrated data via a leased or a dial up telephone line to a radio common carrier such as a paging service for broadcast to the end-user. The data comprises the telephone number of the calling party, the calling party""s name, the calling party""s address, the time of day, and the date of the call, and additional information input into the computer by a call taker at the central site.
The computer uses the calling party identification (ANI) to query one or more databases. The first database queried is the telephone company Data Management System or ALI (automatic location identification) database. Results from each database search are then merged with call taker input, for example free text comments, formatted and then transmitted to a radio common carrier (RCC) or paging company. The radio common carrier prioritizes the data and sends it to their broadcast towers where the data is then broadcast via RF (radio frequency). The broadcast data is received and decoded by an alphanumeric message receiver.
Once the calling party identifier or automatic number identification (ANI) has been decoded and presented to the computer, a query is made to the Data Management System or ALI (Automatic Location Identification) Database. Returned from that database is the ALI which includes, but is not limited to the following fields: (1) the calling party identifier or ANI; (2) the address, including the block number, street name, sub address such as apartment, trailer, suite, and the city and state; (3) the time of day and the date of the call; (4) the caller""s class of telephone service such as residential, business, PBX or mobile; (5) the Emergency Service Number (ESN) which is a three digit code that can represent a geopolitical jurisdiction; (6) the subscriber""s name; and (7) the billing telephone number. Also available for inclusion is any comments that the call taker wishes to insert such as xe2x80x9ccaller unable to speak, possibly chokingxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cdisturbancexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cfire reported at this address.xe2x80x9d This information may be integrated with additional information entered by the call taker such as the nature of the incident and whether it""s critical or non-critical.
None of the prior art provide for communicating emergency telephone call notices to designated parties that includes real-time information about the incident or emergency that is being reported, collected within an interval between a time that the emergency call is recognized and a response is initiated, automatically and immediately while the incident is being reported.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method of communicating emergency telephone call notices to designated parties that provides real-time information about the incident or emergency that is being reported, automatically, with or without human intervention. This will ensure that information about the content of an emergency call is made available to notified parties automatically whether or not a call taker that answers takes action with respect to the emergency call.
An important advantage is that designated parties are notified that a 9-1-1 call has been placed, even though it may not have been answered or responded to by emergency personnel. This is a very useful and unique feature because even when personnel are too busy to act after answering a 9-1-1 call a notified party is informed not only that the call was placed but also the nature of the call.
It is desirable to provide a method of using one or more of the ANI, Time, and Date or other unique identifying information to search an emergency response database, transferring information from the emergency response or other database to an emergency service notify database, and incorporating the information into the outgoing notify message.
It is desirable to provide a system that will detect a call to an emergency service that is initiated from a mobile communications device and respond with an automatic notification that the call has occurred and supply real-time incident and response information.
It is desirable to be able to offer to the recipient of the notification call more information upon which to make a decision on how to respond.
It is desirable to provide a notification service that can detect emergency calls from a wireless phone regardless of whether the ALI database is queried in the processing of the call.
Briefly, the invention relates to a method of searching an emergency response database, transferring information from the emergency response or other database to an emergency service notify database, and incorporating the information into the outgoing notify message. The invention is a computer driven telecommunications system that automatically responds to all wireline or wireless emergency 9-1-1 calls, including wireline and wireless Internet Protocol (IP) emergency 9-1-1 calls.
Wireline calls result in a query to the local telephone company""s Selective Routing/Automatic Location Identification (ALI) database system. This query may come from a tandem selective router, a 9-1-1 controller, a service control point, or other source of an Automatic Number Identification (ANI). An emergency call initiated from a mobile communications (wireless) device is recognized by an alert signal origination mechanism at a point somewhere along a network path.
In either wireline or wireless calls, additional information including real-time information about the incident that is being reported is collected within an interval between a time that the emergency call is recognized and a response is initiated. The emergency call is associated with the additional information. A notify call is then automatically placed to a telephone number designated by the subscriber, the notify call including the additional information.
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the real-time incident and response information includes the location of the mobile communications device from the location system (for wireless calls), and one or more of incident-specific information, person-specific information, and vehicle-specific information.
There are four main components: Registration, Alert Signal Origination, Real-Time Data Acquisition and Notification.
Registration may be through the local telephone company, or directly to the 9-1-1 Notify System, or a combination of both. During the registration mode, a telephone customer registers their telephone number with other unique identifying information as needed, and telephone number(s) to be notified upon the occurrence of 9-1-1 call originating at the subscriber""s telephone. The cost of the service appears on the subscriber""s telephone bill or by direct mailing by the notify service. Thus, only those telephone customers that have subscribed to the service will have information transmitted to designated notify telephone numbers. Registration via the local telephone company requires scheduled downloading of a data packets for each registrant to the system""s master subscriber database.
Alert Signal Origination includes ANI from the ALI database system query, Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) triggers, wireless network events, and Internet Protocol (IP) calls. All ANIs or other unique identifying information are evaluated against the master subscriber database to verify account status.
If a positive evaluation is confirmed, Real-Time Data Acquisition occurs. The selective router or other voice-carrying device in an Advanced Intelligent Network, will be signaled to transfer the voice to a voice-recording device that will record the call. Additional information from a Computer-Assisted Dispatch device (CAD) associated with the call is obtained by database query. The information is stored for retrieval for use in the notification.
Notification is comprised of placing an outgoing connection to each subscriber""s list of addressable communication devices to be notified under the terms of the system and placing either a computer generated voice or text message on the connection, informing the communication device that the subscriber has initiated a 9-1-1 call. The notification may contain prompts to access the additional CAD and voice-recording information.
Other components of the system include typical computer-generated options such as modification of addressable communication devices to be automatically connected, automatic testing of the notification process by the subscriber, help notifications and pricing information responses.
An advantage of the invention is that a voice recording allows an early, accurate notification of a third party when someone dials 9-1-1 from a subscriber phone. For example, the early accurate notification of a private security company when someone dials 9-1-1 from a protected phone or early, accurate notification of a campus security force when someone dials 9-1-1 from a campus phone.